Apple to Award $10,000 Gift Card to 25 Billionth App Downloader

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Apple's about to hit another App Store milestone — the big 25 billionth app download. The company's already put up a countdown clock up on its site and the winner will receive one whopping gift card to buy even more apps!

In four years, Apple's managed to shift over 25 billion downloads. How many other app stores can claim that type of number?

Here's where things get funny. You can also enter the contest by filling out an entry form on the contest website — no purchase necessary or by calling a 1-866-296-5926 (U.S. and Canada). See? You don't even need to be the 25 billionth downloader. You don't even need to download anything to win.

Participants can enter 25 times per day to win the $10,000 gift card (I wonder if it's gold or silver).

Like it or not, people can't get enough of their apps, whether it's on smartphones and tablets or on notebooks and desktops.

In the coming months, apps and their app store economies will become even more important as Apple and Microsoft battle it out with their mobile-inspired OS X Mountain Lion and Windows 8 operating systems.

Both new operating systems pack in features pulled from their respective mobile efforts, centralizing around the use of apps as fullscreen modal windows instead of emphasizing the decades-old folder/desktop hierarchy.

"We see that people are in love with a lot of the apps and functionality here," said Mr. Cook, 51 years old, pointing at his iPhone. "So, anywhere where it makes sense, we are going to move that over to Mac."